


The Phoenix

by PROMARE_D_Lost



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cameos, Gen, M/M, Non-Canonical Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 22:36:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21187112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PROMARE_D_Lost/pseuds/PROMARE_D_Lost
Summary: Inspired by a Tumblr post I recently saw: Galo Thymos dies. But suddenly, he awakens at home with all his memories from the past week intact...?!





	The Phoenix

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate, spoiler-y summary: "When Galo Thymos gets pushed off the cliff in the end of Promare by Kray's flames, he dies. But suddenly, he awakens at home with all his memories from the past week intact...?!"
> 
> MAJOR spoilers for Promare and Galo-hen, the Galo-centric short: Read at your own risk! Unbeta'd. This involves me making shit up about the Promare that doesn't necessarily make sense because Trigger, bless them, made shit up that didn't make sense. LOL Also, there's LioGalo if you squint for reasons I won't get into here.
> 
> Comments welcome!!

Galo Thymos awakens thrashing and screaming until his voice catches on itself. He hacks and coughs, but he still can’t get the bile out of his mouth, so he rushes to his toilet and throws up until he’s completely empty.

_Holy shit._

_HOLY SHIT._

Had all of that really happened? Was it not just some cruel joke his mind had played on him?

_No way_, a wounded, disappointed, resigned voice replies. With dread, he realizes that the voice sounds like his own. _There’s no way you’d ever dream of your role model, your hero, doing those kinds of horrible things. … No way that you’d dream of him hating and killing you._

He stills as he realizes:

_Wait, then did I die?_

and

that he remembers _everything_.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Galo wants nothing more than to keep screaming, to start crying again, to go to his cool-down spot and punch through the ice or drown himself in the water if it means that any of this will stop being real and and and –

But he can’t, can’t he? Because he only has about a week to fix things. To keep the Go – _Kray_ from capturing Lio, at the very least.

(From murdering him. Someone else.)

His mind is in overdrive like it’s never been before. Kray had made it so that basically only he and his allies could access the underground lab, with his eye recognition thing and all those doors. So he can’t just sneak in to where the Burnish are being held and rescue them. And after how he beat Lio back so easily… he doesn’t think he can take him one-on-one, either.

(A couple of tears slip down his face. He wipes them away absentmindedly.)

So what the hell is he supposed to do?!

His alarm suddenly breaks his downtrodden silence. His alarm for work… Right. Today’s the day he’s gonna square up against the Mad Burnish for the first time, and capture them…

_Did… Did Kray experiment on, torture, Lio and the other Mad Burnish between when we fought and he came back as a dragon…?_

The thought turns his stomach again.

After about a couple of minutes of thinking with no new ideas, Galo settles for the following:

_… I have to try to forget. That’ll be easier than lying for me. Forget until I need to. Go through this week like normal until I can work something out. I shouldn’t be making any of them wait, but maybe in the cave…_

Galo heads out and tries to recall his burning firefighter spirit. It takes quite a bit, but by the time he arrives at Burning Rescue’s headquarters, he thinks he has it again:

_Like with the Lio de Galon. Even when my hope’s been extinguished and my ideals have been trampled on… now more than ever before, there’s still a chance to turn things around._

_I can’t give up yet!_

(He knows Lio wouldn’t, either.)

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If something seems off with him, his loudness and smiles a little too forced, a bit awkward, no one says anything.

For once, he’s thankful that the rest of the squad doesn’t always take him seriously.

(He’s not an idiot: His intro totally stuck and was totally him, so he couldn’t entirely regret it, but at the end of the day they met, their eye-rolls and mockery and scorn told him that he hadn’t left a good first impression. And he’s only been on the job for about a week, not nearly enough time to prove himself.)

[_You never had to prove yourself to Kray. He liked-hated you from the start._]

He goes through the motions of sleeping in the Rescuemobile, defeating Lio and his friends, and talking back to Vulcan. That part he doesn’t fake, he really _is_ an asshole.

But during this run, he has more time to gather information. (He didn’t care about that kind of stuff before [because things had always turned out fine for him even with him rushing into things] until Lio. Now, knowledge is power.) So he pays more attention to everything around him than he usually would.

One thing he notices is that Lio smells like… roses? When they’re first face-to-face. He finds that odd in a way that won’t leave him be, until his mind helpfully supplies that he may have to mask odors from not being able to bathe, not having soap and water to bathe with or giving them to his fellow Burnish even if they are available –

_Stop stop stop **not now –**_

Another is that he’s… a really pretty dude. Super cool, yeah, like, who else could pull off all those frills and all that leather and still look good? No one but Lio freaking Fotia. (Even Galo can understand that that kind of outfit shouldn’t work as well as it does.) Plus they were Lio de Galon together, which automatically makes him awesome! But more so than that, his hair is straight and shiny, a surprisingly calming color that manages to match his flames. His deep eyes are constantly ablaze, even if that sometimes dies down into a smolder. And his surly expression and tone are honestly adorable.

Galo bites down hard on his lip _dammit brain this is **not** helping –_

And yet.

The last thing is that the Mad Burnish are so much smaller than their suits of armor would ever lead anyone to believe. He reminds himself of what he said the first time, that Lio looks like a kid. He specifies that he looks to be a teenager or maybe even around his age compared to… what are they called, Gueira and Meis?

An actual punk, carrying the weight of the world on his tiny shoulders.

_Holy shit, Kray._

Something inside him rages at the thought. Awe, admiration, concern, fear…

And he thinks to himself:

_Lio’s a real hero._

He understands why the Mad Burnish have chosen him as their leader, despite everything.

But.

_An urge to protect._

_I’ll make it so you don’t have to be anyone’s hero anymore, Lio._

_I’ll save you and everyone else._

(He doesn’t make any promises, only because he’s scared that things are gonna go wrong again and there won’t be a third time.)

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Galo goes through the motions again, up until he drops Aina at the lake. This run, he doesn’t ask her to call anyone. He says he’ll check things out first, then report back in with her.

He doesn’t know what to say to dissuade her from coming to his rescue if he still needs her to, so he leaves anything about that out.

_But what was with that face?, _Galo asks himself as he finally heads to the Burnish’s cave. _She was blushing like… … … Wait, did she think I was gonna kiss her – ?!_

It doesn’t matter anymore: He’s here.

He waits a little while for the two kids he spotted before to hide themselves, then strolls on in, but quietly. He thinks about pulling out his gun because a sense of tension and dread is hanging over him like a shroud he can’t break free of, his hand twitches for it, but he forcibly grabs it and lays it at his side uselessly.

Lio hadn’t done anything to him before but tie him up with a measly rope and startle him in response to his mean-hearted jab. Hadn’t interrogated him, hurt him, or killed him when he’d had the best shot at doing so and every reason to. He hadn’t been trying to kill him when he was a dragon, either, he knows. And maybe all that was because he doesn’t really see him as a threat (just a nuisance; the thought stings, but he’s used to it by now). The exact reason why doesn’t matter.

Galo obviously doesn’t see Lio as a threat either, so he’ll approach him calmly. Another brawl is the exact opposite of what they need.

Galo senses him this time where he was distracted before and gently but forcefully grabs the arm that Lio’s extended towards him from behind.

“What…?!”

He turns to face him, gaze solemn, steadfast, honest. Lio twitches, completely confused as to what exactly is going on here. _He didn’t look like that before. And how did he know that I – ?_

“Hold on. Please. I just wanna talk.”

“What could there possibly be for us to discuss, Galo Thymos?”

“A lot, actually, Lio Fotia.” He feels awkward calling anyone by their full name, that’s just not something he does, but last time, Lio had seemed irritated by Galo forgetting his name. So this time, he’s gonna play by his rules.

“Hmph, you remembered.”

“Yeah. I’m not an idiot.”

Lio’s smirk stills somewhat. “Are you sure? You seem like it.”

“No, I just have my burning firefighter soul.” He’d normally shout that, but he doesn’t want to disturb the rest of the Burnish while they’re de-stressing and eating.

Lio somehow realizes that, that this is off, and he frowns. “… You’re acting strange. Why should I have to listen to anything you, our enemy, say?”

“Because I’m not! I’m not your enemy!”

“You’re not? You could’ve fooled me before.”

“I had to keep up appearances! That’s why I’m trying to talk to you now, while we still have a chance to fix things!!” His impatience, frustration, and slight disappointment in Lio’s lack of faith in him (to be fair to him, a complete stranger) flare up, make his voice boom.

Lio appraises him with his gaze. Unfortunately, both Galo Thymos’ statements and body language seem to indicate that he’s being sincere.

And… his gun has been holstered this whole time. It still is, he’s not even reaching for it.

And he’s come alone.

Lio sighs, a short puff of air. “… Alright. What do you mean?”

“Listen, I know this is gonna sound crazy, but… I know – I recently found out – about what Kray’s been doing to the Burnish.” Lio bristles. “And I wanna help you free them.”

“What?” Lio asks incredulously. “Why?”

“Because all the Burnish are human just like the rest of us! And killing people just because we can is wrong! Sacrificing them is wrong too! Especially when they didn’t ask to become Burnish in the first place!!”

Lio’s caught completely off-guard. Is this some sort of joke? An act of providence, karma, that this fool known as Galo Thymos would stumble into his path willing to help him destroy Kray Foresight?

Isn’t this too good to be true?

“… How do you think you can help us?”

“In lots of ways! I know where exactly he’s keeping your friends! The hard part is getting there… They’re in an underground lab, like, way underground. Kray uses some machine that scans his eyes and then unlocks a bunch of doors to get to them. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, but I haven’t come up with anything, and I’m not strong enough to take on Kray on my own.”

“What, your ‘burning firefighter spirit’ isn’t enough to beat him back?”

“No. … Because he’s a Burnish, too.”

For the first time in a long time, Lio’s blood freezes in its veins. The other Burnish who’ve heard him all start muttering among themselves, a stupefied chorus growing louder and louder –

“… Everyone, please, lower your voices. I understand your confusion and anger – I share it – but if we’re too loud, Freeze Force will find us all that much more quickly,” mumbles Lio, ever the cool flame. They listen to him obediently, but they do not silence.

Lio hisses, more so quietly: “Are you serious? Are you _sure_?”

“Yeah.” For the first time, Galo looks away from him, bitterly and sadly. “When I was a kid, he awakened to his powers and burnt my apartment complex down to the ground.”

Lio’s ire abates for the moment as he startles back to reality. “… I’m sorry for your loss. … Even so, you still want to help us?”

“Absolutely!” Galo grins. “I know it’s Kray, but I think he did it by accident. And more than that, I know anyone following you doesn’t hurt innocent people on purpose. Because you’re not that kind of person.”

Lio snorts, not necessarily in a bad-natured way. “How could you possibly know that? We’ve only just met.”

“I can tell, with my burning soul. And with what’s going on right now. You’re a good guy.”

Lio blushes faintly, not used to being complimented by anyone other than Meis, Gueira, and the others.

“But enough of that, we gotta focus on how we’re gonna stop Kray! We don’t have much time left!”

Lio nods; at least on their end, they have to get going soon. (No matter what, he has no intention of bringing along his fellow Burnish to fight Kray; that could easily be suicide.) “Is the lab heavily guarded?”

“No, Kray’s the biggest threat from what I saw.”

“Then it seems to be simple. Let’s storm his lab with that weird tech of yours and defeat him.”

“It's not weird!! And no, that won’t work, either!”

“Why not?”

“Because… well, remember when I said this was gonna sound crazy?”

“Yes. Surprisingly, it hasn’t so far.”

“Well, I… I know somehow that if you fight Kray head-on, you’re going to lose.”

Lio’s eyes narrow. “Are you saying you know his flames are stronger than mine?”

“Yeah.”

“Stronger than everyone else’s, too?”

“Maybe. Probably. I mean, you’re the leader of the Mad Burnish, right? And even you were no match for – “

Galo covers his mouth with one hand and stops talking.

“_Were?_”

“… I don’t expect you to believe this part, and you don’t need to, but… I’m from the future. That’s why I know. That… and because he killed me even though you were trying to protect me.”

… Huh. Yes, he’s right, that does sound too ridiculous to believe.

But in his eyes, Galo Thymos has already proven beyond a shred of several doubts that he is not a liar. And so it must be true…

“If you died, then how are you here now?”

“I don't know. I woke up a week ago – a couple of days ago for us – like nothing had happened.”

“I see. … Unfortunately, if that’s the case, then I’m not sure how to approach Kray. If I had more time to think, I could probably come up with some kind of strategy, but…”

“Yeah, you have to go keep everybody safe, huh?” He smiles, but it doesn’t nearly reach his eyes. For some reason, Lio’s heart skips a beat as he’s watching him: He somehow knows that that’s resignation, not pity, and respect all-in-one.

“… I do. They need me with them.”

“Well, get going, then! We’ll figure something out!” Galo tries to reassure both of them by grinning as widely as he can. “My burning firefighter soul and I haven’t given up yet! Because I came back to life for a reason!”

Lio can’t help but smirk. Galo Thymos really is an idiot, isn’t he?

But then he sobers up. “Here,” he says, and suddenly a lick of his flames is snaking up from his arm to Galo’s. Galo’s eyes are initially panicked, but he breathes in deeply and schools his expression as best as he can. Warm, accepting. Lio hasn’t hurt him, he isn’t gonna start now.

(Lio feels a twinge of guilt. Given his history, it makes sense that he’s scared of fires when he has time to feel that fear. But they have no other choice.)

“Sorry for being abrupt, but this is the only means of communication we Burnish have now. This flame is a part of mine. The voice it possesses will allow it to whisper things to me, impressions, feelings, from you. If you think of something, use it to try to let me know. Otherwise, it can do the same thing to lead you to me, and vice-versa.”

“Got it.” He’s surprisingly gentle with it as he rolls it around in his hand, then slowly closes it down on it. The flame shockingly disappears without a trace: To the average onlooker, Galo’s never been a Burnish or had Burnish powers. It takes a lot of self-control to manage something like that.

More credence to what he was saying, perhaps? As if he’s done this before. As if…

(When he said that he’d protected him, did he mean he’d done so with his flames?)

Gueira and Meis finally arrive, and all the Burnish finally begin to load up the trucks they’ve acquired. Galo’s staring at him with determination, eyes holding a promise, as everyone else files out of this hellhole.

_His eyes are like blue fire. The hottest kind_, Lio realizes.

The thought amuses him, but he doesn’t indicate as much. Instead, he meets his gaze and states:

“Galo Thymos… You should watch your back. … And… thank you.”

“You, too, Lio! Stay safe, and call out to me if anything happens! I’ll save you!!”

… Save him?

A chuckle bubbles up from his throat. Why can he believe that so easily?

“… I’ll think about it.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Galo startles awake in the middle of the night for two reasons:

One, Lio’s flame is dancing around like crazy in his palm. The impression’s he’s getting are of betrayal, pain, helplessness, hopelessness, guilt, heartbreak…

And a deep-seated hatred.

They leave him struggling to catch his breath for a good couple of minutes. He eventually grimaces, clenching his other hand into a fist. _Dammit, Kray…!!_

A chill settles over him as he remembers that this is all pretty much playing out the exact same way as the last run. He really hasn’t been able to change _anything?! Dammit!!_

But.

But.

Two, he already has part of Lio’s flame now. He can practice using it leading into tomorrow morning, figure out how to better manifest the power of the Promare than just on a whim when his head’s spinning as he’s being thrust off a cliff, not entirely understanding what’s just happened to him –

So. He’ll see Kray. That’ll go the same. He can even practice while he’s locked up, as long as he’s careful about it.

Unfortunately, he can tell that Lio’s not moving anymore and that he can’t free himself. So he shouldn’t be able to either. And even if he could manage to bring him back to Promepolis, to his home, their covers would be blown immediately, and they’d probably be captured on sight.

That dragon will have to pay Promepolis another visit, then. It absolutely _sucks_, he doesn’t know if anyone was hurt or killed by it last time, but…

He tries to send his own impressions through Lio’s flame back to him. The kindness he’s shown his comrades, the mercy he showed him before, his speech about the Mad Burnish always doing what they can to keep innocent people out of harm’s way…

And something like his shoulder to lean on. _I’m so sorry. But everything’s gonna be OK. Because you and I are gonna fix it._

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Lio awakens, his wrath burns just as bright as before. But he also finally receives the impressions from Galo, and he softens just slightly.

His homecoming is a little easier on the populace of Promepolis, less scorching of sidewalks, streets, and cars and more so of windows, walls, roofs, trees, shrubbery.

Galo notices the difference. He gives a little cheer internally.

Lio ignores him, for now.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This time, the Lio de Galon’s attacks against the deck of the Parnassus are much more intense, powerful. They know where the Burnish are, and they’re going to save them.

Unfortunately, Krazor X still stops them before they make any significant headway.

But also:

Lio fights tooth and nail, as much as he can within Kray’s grasp, crying out in his very soul for something, someone to please, please protect Galo Thymos so he can save them.

(Save him.)

And Galo wraps Lio’s power around himself as much as he can.

Galo survives his tumble off a cliff.

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by me as of 11/15!


End file.
